Meeting His Mom
by bradw316
Summary: Sakura falls asleep healing Naruto after a huge battle in the war and meets Kushina in a dreamscape. Rated M for language during a Rant.


Meeting His Mom

Naruto sat quietly looking out over the vast war camp feeling exhausted but comfortable he was about head into his tent to get some much needed rest. But Shizune had practically begged him to seek Sakura out to help get over the chakra exhaustion. He cringes slightly at the thought he knew it was necessary but knowing the look he would receive the kind of look he rather avoid with Sakura. He panicked whenever Sakura's was anything but a smile, because a smile meant she was happy. He knew it was unrealistic to always make Sakura happy, but the way his heart clinched anytime she was sad, worried, or upset felt more painful than any punch, kunai, or jutsu. He resigned himself to this fact as he stood to go look for the rosette haired young woman. He turned only to find that she had found him. "Oh hey Sakura-chan I was just going to look for you," he smiled widely hiding the wince in his arms and legs.

She frowned at him walking up and bopping him on the back of his head, "You idiot," she muttered her face wearing concern. "Why do you do this?" she saw he was about to response, "Save it," she sighed pushing him back onto the ground and sitting down next to him her hands begin glowing green. "Summoning clones using that new Fox shroud to fight every battle, what were you thinking you could have killed yourself."

Naruto winced as her face showing more and more concern at each passing moment, "I had to do something."

The rosette haired young woman eyes closed a moment, "I ought to knock you out so can't do this again tomorrow," she stated her voiced hitched.

"I'm sorry Sakura but this is something that I need to do," he said softly dropping the suffix to her name. "Eventually I'll have to face that fake Madara, Kabuto, and Sasuke before the end of this. Sasuke and I will fight and probably die together," the whisker marked blonde stated looking out at the encampment missing Sakura's horrified face.

Sakura had been slowly growing closer to her blonde teammate daily since Sasuke left in his pursuit of power and revenge. Her heart had been shattered she had poured her soul to the Uchiha willing to leave the village for him, but in the end she had been rendered unconscious and left on a bench. Now he wasn't the person he use to be, he tried to kill Naruto four times, her three times, Kakashi once, killed Danzo while not a great loss was still criminal. Now the Uchiha had told them his sole goal was destroy the Hidden Leaf. That included everyone in it, _he never wanted to revive his clan, if he ever succeeds he'll just follow in Orochimaru's path trying gain immortality._ She looked down at the wounds Naruto had suffered, his eyes closed just before he slumped to the side laying his head on her shoulder. She blushed slightly not moving anything except her hands trying to ease Naruto's chakra exhaustion, a few months if tried this she would have sent him flying. Now however things had changed she had changed. The confession she made before heading off to seek to end Sasuke once and for all had been half-hearted but on one level it had been true. She loved Naruto she was just unsure how deeply she felt it. _I don't really deserve it, all the times I treated him badly, the name calling, sometimes hitting for no real reason. But there were other times, praising my accomplishments when we did tree climbing the first time, coming to our rescue during the forest of death, cheering me on when I fought Ino, saving my life when we fought Gaara_. She managed to ask Temari about that battle in hopes that Sasuke had been wrong about saying Naruto had rescued her, the blonde sand girl confirmed Sasuke's account. _Saved me several times in that underground bunker, convinced me to become Lady Tsunade's apprentice_. She thought about it long and hard yet she was still conflicted, she needed help. She yawned not realizing what was happening she slumped her head against Naruto's falling asleep cancelling her jutsu.

XXX

Sakura looked around she was in a large white space with nothing at all around her. "Hello?" she yelled out.

"So you're Sakura," a bright sounding female voice stated from behind her. Spinning around Sakura came face to face with arguably the most beautiful woman she had ever met. The woman had long blood red hair, bright green eyes holding a lot of mischief that felt familiar to her. She wore a long blue maternal dress with a full body yellow apron over the dress. In her hair was a single green beret. "I must say I can't see why he likes you so much."

"What! Who?" Sakura asked in both confusion and anger feeling like she was just insulted and scrutinized at the same time. _Only Naruto has been able to do that_.

"Oops spoke too soon," the woman chirped happily giggling. "Looks like he took my advice way before he ever met me," the red head smiled.

"What are you talking about and who are you?" Sakura looked at the woman in confusion.

"Name's Kushina," the woman replied in sing song voice walking around the rosette arms behind her head. "The Red Hot Habanero of the Hidden Leaf, wife to the greatest of all Hokage currently, ya know."

Sakura's eyes widen, "You're the 4th Hokage's wife?"

"Yep, that's me but I have few other names," Kushina said cheerfully. "So Sakura having troubles I hear, trying to decide between the psycho-path that became my godson and Naruto, huh."

"How do you know my name and what's going on?" the rosette asked.

Kushina touched her chin a moment looking like she was thinking, "Let's see first I'm dead, two the dead often get bored and watch the living, and well I feel like I should help ya out."

Sakura nodded feeling a bit like she was going quietly nuts but humored the woman, "I don't know how to feel or think right now. For the longest time I thought I was in love with Sasuke Uchiha, but now I can't decide how I feel about him, he nearly killed me three times, if it wasn't for Kakashi-sensei and Naruto I'd be dead right now. But a part of me just can't get passed it, I feel like I can't breathe."

"Your heart's broken but it still holds lingering thread of feelings for him. Problem is he holds nothing but contempt for everything and everyone in the Hidden Leaf because of this you know it'll end in tragedy," Kushina responds a sad frown appeared on her face. "It's not something you want to see Sakura-chan and worse he'll drag Naruto down with him."

Sakura's eyes widen, "You really think Naruto will die with Sasuke?"

"Yes, because he'll hold back afraid to deal lethal strikes because he believes if he does you'll be sad," the red-head explains. "He holds you in such high regards."

"But WHY! All I've ever done to him is hit him, make fun of him, I even said I hated him during our first team meeting. Yet he would bend over backwards to save my life, compliment me for my smallest accomplishments, and risk getting himself killed to bring someone home who's shown not only does not want to go back but would only go back so he could level the entire village. Why does he always do this?"

Kushina smiled sadly, "To make you happy, because he loves you even though he may never ever get that love in return."

Sakura looks at the woman for a moment digesting the information bit by bit, along with what Sai had told her and what she experienced on her own. "But I don't deserve it," she argued weakly. "Not after finding out why everyone treated him the way they did. I contributed to that."

The red-head's sad smile never faltered. "You never feel ready to be loved by anyone nor feel like you truly deserve it. When Naruto said you needed to be true to yourself he wanted you to remove all your doubts," she paused. "Doubts that you still have, until you can then you'll never be true to yourself."

Sakura slumped to her knees burying her face in her hands, "I'm so confused," she cried.

Kushina walked up to the younger woman and gently put her hands on Sakura's shoulders, causing the rosette to look up and for a brief second Sakura could swear she was looking at Naruto. "It's alright to be confused, but here is something that I want you to think about before you go. Which path holds the most appeal, the dark path a young man who lost his family to tragedy and sworn to avenge them in every way possible to the point that his anger and hatred caused him to lose focus and his life will end just as tragically. Or will you choose the light side, a boy born into tragedy, raised in darkness but instead succumbing to it he outshines it becoming a hero determined to fight to save everyone he cares for even at the cost of his own life, yet wishing to live to achieve his greatest dreams."

"You're talking about the paths Naruto and Sasuke are on, Naruto the light and Sasuke the dark," the rosette stated the red head nods now smiling brightly. "It's a lot to think about, Kushina," she said wiping her tears away.

"Yes, but the time will come when you will have to choose, light or dark," Kushina states walking a bit away as she started to fade. "When that day comes I really hope you pick the light, Sakura-chan you'd be good for my little sochi," she smiled as she vanished.

XXX

Sakura's eyes went three times their size looking at the area the woman had just been, "T-T-That was Naruto's mom!" she ran through the conversation again in her mind slowly picking through things in the woman's personality and found how remarkably alike she was to Naruto. As she did she found herself going over the conversation again. Kushina was right she would in the end have to choose between light and dark, Naruto or Sasuke. She then thought of the worlds she would be in, she chose Sasuke first, her life on the run fighting shinobi from every village never given rest always hunted never stopping until they were either captured and executed or simply killed in combat their name's erased and forgotten, the world would be in chaos or enslaved by the fake Madara. She shuddered at how the images played across her mind she'd lose everything in the end if not from enemy ninja then a madman's plan.

Next she thought of what would happen is she chose a life with Naruto. The war over the Akatsuki destroyed the fake Madara dead, Sasuke dead, and Kabuto dead. The world slowly returning to normal old grudges being buried, Naruto working hard to secure new stronger alliances, becoming Hokage trying his best to make things work, while simultaneously trying to keep her happy. What was funny was that it worked, she could see herself laughing with her friends, knocking Naruto senseless every time he did something stupid or perverted but also hugging and kissing him when he did things right or just because she wanted to. Each image was better than the last, she looked up at the white ceiling a small smile gracing her features as she began to wake.

XXX

Opening her eyes Sakura glanced at Naruto who was still sleeping peacefully she turned slightly so she could put her arms around him. This had been second time she had ever hugged him, and like the first time it felt good. The only time she ever had her hands around Sasuke was during the second phase of the Chunin exams and she had been afraid that time, afraid he would turn around and knock her away. Hugging a person she knew shouldn't illicit that kind of response being afraid of them, with Naruto in her arms she didn't feel that she felt warmth and safety. She wasn't sure if she was over Sasuke yet, but like Kushina she rooting for her heart to choose Naruto.

Author's Note: This was just something that I felt about writing, there is no real pairing just scented as Naruto/Sakura.

Author's Rant: This little section is going to be used to air out my frustrations at two affected parties the Naruto/Hinata fans and the Sasuke/Sakura fans. These two groups make me want to pull my hair out by the roots. Let's point out how times Naruto has interacted with both Sakura and Hinata. How many times has Naruto interacted with Hinata in the original series, I'm not talking about being on screen or just in the same scene I'm talking about talking to each other. I count three times in the original manga series, same for the anime unless you count the fillers which everyone you don't count, okay. In the Shippuden series how many times does Hinata interact with Naruto before the big confession, it was once again not counting the possible fillers. Sakura interacts with Naruto practically every volume leading up to the time skip and every time after the skip. Matter of fact Sakura gets more screen time with Naruto than Sasuke does.

Now let's change gears and deal with the Sasuke/Sakura bone heads, I'll admit that during the original series she was a devoted fangirl but she wasn't abusive bitch that everyone says she is with Naruto, I've watched the punches and what leads up to them, one he's being a loud mouth idiot, two he's being a perverted idiot, and three he's not paying attention what he's saying sticking his foot in his mouth earning a righteous punch to the mouth. When he's not doing one of those three things Sakura is fairly nice to him and she cheers for him not only in the preliminary round but final round of the Chunin exams. However Sasuke starts going downhill during these exams, not liking the idea of people stronger than him, Naruto included he starts obsessing about getting power. Plus he is constantly going through the unholy trio of emotions, fear, anger, and hatred. Let's see what did Yoda say in the Phantom Menace, "Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering." Now look at Sasuke has become, a vessel of hatred that only Darth Sidious would be proud of. You Sasuke/Sakura fans disgust me. So what that Sakura confessed to Sasuke nothing came of it, it's a play on Sakura's emotions and it doesn't help that Naruto actually made things more confusing to her, yes I hold Naruto responsible for being a part of this travesty, if Naruto didn't henge into Sasuke in Volume 3 then Sakura's feelings would be a lot less messed up now. Using Sasuke's image to ask her how she feels about him while pretty much echoing her own thoughts at that time made her think she had a chance and she puts all her effort into it afterward. That whole scene is to blame for this shit storm that is Sasuke/Sakura. I keep seeing on pairing websites, YouTube, and the forums here on making excuses why Sasuke and Sakura should still be together even after he nearly kills her twice. That brings my piss to a boil even more, if a guy tried to do that in real life you'd jump down his throat yet, because it's Sasuke and it's an animated series that excuses it. I got some words for you bite my holy white hairy redneck ass. This is Bradw316 signing off.


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